When The Clouds Gather

When The Clouds Gather

 

At first I thought that it was only early morning due to the dim light. However I did notice eventually that the sun was in fact high in the sky. Truly it was about midday, but thanks to the clouds, which blocked out the light, the sun was only casting a pale light over the world. My world was raining, and just like when last I had faced Symonds, the clouds were probably going to rain too.

Another thing. When I woke up I was alone. The spot just across from the fire where Martyn had ‘slept’ was vacant. Although the earth there had visibly been disturbed by the Manhunter. Chances were he had fled back to Whitewind because he couldn’t stand to be around someone as horrid as myself. That fact further added to the rain in my mind.

I didn’t have much time to think about it though. It was the kind of thing that simply stung a little whenever I stopped doing something to catch my breath. I was pretty busy unpacking all of my things from Pandora for a large part of the time. I couldn’t quite decide what to do with her, I knew it was a good idea to unburden her though.

After taking absolutely everything from my horse I decided that I had time to ride her one last time. She no longer wore her saddle so I rode around on her bareback slowly for quite some time. Just the same as the first time I had ridden her at Rowan’s command. It helped cheer me up a bit.

What little sunlight there was felt warm against my skin, even though I couldn’t quite feel it entirely. Every so often the clouds would part but not burst. In those moments the world would be a little bit warmer, but then another cloud would always come to block out the sun once more. More often then not the cloud was Symonds.

After that ride I settled back down to where I had left all of my things and started to prepare. I tried to shoo away Pandora several times but she never even batted an eyelid at my feeble attempts. I think I ended up sitting down, with Pandora crouching down next to me. She was there so that I could scratch behind her eyes, and I was there so that I had someone to talk to. That was when I found out who ‘they’ really were.

“Hello mister” came a voice from somewhere out of sight.

There was a large rock on my left, I assumed that the voice had come from behind there. I was about to rise and investigate my assumption when another voice startled me.

“Fancy finding you here laddie.” This time the voice was male and deep.

I had been halfway between standing on sitting when i had heard that. The startled me into falling back down onto the ground.

“It really is amazing that you can survive here” said a third voice, this one was also a males voice. “I mean there are no bloody women out here, and nothing wonderful either!”

All of the voices were familiar. The third voice especially, that one was unmistakable no matter where you were.

“It would appear that you stayed safe enough my boy.” That fourth voice was also one that I knew straight away.

I once again started to rise but this time the next voice didn’t startle me, in fact, this time it spurred my to rise faster. It also split my face in to by making me smile.

“Long time no see, kid” said a young man. Not that I could see him to say that he was young, but I already knew that he was.

As I crossed around the rock the last two voices to speak were in unison. Like identical twins who spoke at the same time, although that those two were far from identical.

“Milord Pelletier!” Eugene and Damon exclaimed as I turned to face them. The two soldiers then bowed, deeply and sarcastically as I took my first shaky step forwards.

 The two of them stood in front of a large group of people. The ‘they’ that my father’s man had referred to was that in fact Symonds men. ‘They’, were everyone, and they were all here. The rain stopped completely for a moment.

There were the farmers. Lettuce, Griff and Peter. The three massive men stood close together and all wore beaming smiles across their face. I had no idea if they knew about Rowan or not, in fact I never asked, I always assumed that they did though. In any case, my heart started to melt at the sight of them.

Alongside the farmers was Elle and members of the caravan I had last travelled over the mountains with. Alfric looked as dashing as ever with his expensive sword, especially alongside Pylas who stooped low with his crooked back. William was also there and Safia, Elle’s sister, stood side by side with her younger sibling.

Then there was Godfrey with two large hammers tied to his belt, he stood alone towards the back, or so I thought. I eventually noticed that Nicolas was at his side. A bow was strung across the hunter’s back. I could only hope that he would like what I had done with the remains of his sword.

Samuel and his father, Marcus, were also there. They stood in the centre of the group and I could just make out the pair of hand axes that Samuel carried. I found it impossible to tear the smile from off of my face, and I think I might have shed a tear or too.

“W-What are you all doing here?” I gasped out. I was too surprised to even breath properly, let alone talk.

“We just thought that you could do with a hand” Griff called out.

I laughed and rubbed the stump of my arm, it was the first real laugh I had done in a long time. Honestly it felt good, it really did. Although the rain came back soon enough when I actually stopped to think about why everyone was here.

After everyone was done laughing at Griff’s joke Elle stepped forward. She had a little mischievous smile on her face, but at the same time she managed to look dead set serious. She placed a hand on my shoulder and her smile widened further, after that she didn’t look so childish anymore.

“Even in the short time we knew each other, you managed to help me.” She whispered before planning a quick kiss on my cheek.

“And all of us too!” Alfric added loudly from behind.

“You have helped every single one of us.” Samuel stepped forward. He was grinning wildly.

“It is simply time for us to pay you back.” A hand landed softly upon my other shoulder. This time it was Nicolas.

“For all of the good that you’ve done. So we’re going to help you fix everything” Godfrey bellowed quietly from the back of the group.

I bit into my lip as I had done when forced to fight Martyn. Except this time I was doing it to contain my happiness, rather than my despair. Martyn… he was the only one who wasn’t there, that fact also helped to contain my happiness by reducing it massively.

“Is he always this late?” I heard Eugene mumble to Damon.

“I don’t know, why don’t you ask Danny? After all, he knows the man better than anyone.” Came Damon’s swift reply.

The conversation peaked my interest even before Eugene approached me to ask the exact same question a second time.

“Is he always this late, Danny?” Eugene repeated.

I was still puzzled as to who exactly ‘he’ was so I shrugged. It was beginning to annoy me how everyone seemed to refuse to call anyone by name. It always lead to much confusion and repetition for me.

“Who the hell is he?” I demanded.

Eugene pulled a funny face while Damon opened his eyes widely, as if surprised by my question. Why would he expect me to know who ‘he’ was? Why would either of them? But then Damon pointed.

“Never mind Eugene. You can ask the Manhunter himself.” Damon continued to point.

At the mention of the word Manhunter I spun rapidly to look where Damon was pointing. Sure enough, there he was, standing atop a small hill while the pale sunlight illuminated him. The dirty blonde hair and blue eyes were back, Martyn was back.

I let out a small yelp of joy, too quiet for anyone to hear and then sped off towards the Manhunter. I stopped a few meters from him and stood awkwardly though. Remembering how poorly our last encounter had gone. In his eyes there was no longer fire, they looked icy now, and yet ice could often burn more intensely than fire.

He looked tired, like a man who has just run somewhere very quickly, although at first I wasn’t certain that he actually had. He didn’t pant at all nor was he sweating too heavily, he had in fact had to run very quickly though. On top of that, he had been running for me.

After the better part of a minute our standstill came to an abrupt end. Martyn’s hand started to slide up his leg and towards the hilt of his sword. I was about ready to draw my own sword and battle my friend once again when I noticed that his other hand was doing the same.

Both hands ended up sliding straight past the hilt of his blade and being thrown open. It was the exact same thing I had done last time I had seen the Manhunter. I think I might have shed another few tears when the two of us embraced. As Martyn patted my back he also reassured me that he truly was on my side.

I pulled away from Martyn slowly after one last squeeze of his shoulder. “I’m glad to have you here, Martyn.”

He showed a row of white teeth and then shook his head. “Well despite everything Danny… I’m glad to be here, at your side.”

I wrapped an arm around the Manhunter’s shoulders and started to walk down the small hill. The rest of our group stood watching us, everyone including myself had a smile glued to their face. They were real smiles too, they really were.

“You two done having your little romance yet?” Samuel jeered.

“There will be plenty of time for all of that after this!” added Nicolas.

“Plenty of time for some ‘wonderful women’!” Lettuce exclaimed.

“But right now we have some work to do”  boomed Godfrey.

“Looks like we’re all in agreement than mister!” Elle finished.

I nodded my agreement and although I felt good, I could also feel the rain start to set in. I could see the clouds gathering overhead too, just as the had last time. Although the weather was repeating itself the outcome of this battle was going to be completely different, this time I was, going to kill Symonds.

“And we have more than just a little work to do.” Damon spoke and Eugene nodded.

“Aye!” Martyn shouted echoing everyone’s sentiment, including my own. “I took a few quick looks at where Symonds is holed up, and everyone knows what they’re doing correct?”

Everyone who stood around me nodded and shouted their agreements. Then they were all staring at me… more like into me. They were staring into me at the broken mess which they were about to help fix.

“We move as soon as you’re ready Danny.” Martyn placed a hand on my shoulder. He really was a good person and an even better friend.

I smirked and cocked an eyebrow at the rain. “Let’s do this”